The Long Road Towards Independence, Justice and Peace for the Basque Country

Saturday, March 13, 2004

Madrid Refuses Al Qaeda Link

Today at Berria English they take a stand against the non sense of the Spanish regime insisting on blaming the organization that refused to be behind the attacks in Madrid and allowing the one that did and has committed such bombings in the past to walk free:

Sana Aloul: “The statement on the Madrid attack is like the ones we have received in the past”

~One of the people in charge at the al-Quds al-Arabi newspaper lends credibility to the letter sent to them by al-Qaeda claiming responsibility for the Madrid attack, and rules out the possibility of links between ETA and the Arab group

Ainara Mendiola – Special Correspondent – LONDON

Even though the Arabic newspaper al-Quds al-Arabi has many offices all over the world, including one in Madrid, its headquarters are located in London’s King Street. This pan-Arab newspaper is one of the biggest. It sells about 100,000 copies a day, according to Sana Aloul, and its aim is to support human rights and democracy. The London office has a staff of 30. Aloul told BERRIA he was in a hurry; he did not want to speak in front of a recorder nor have his photo taken. On his desk he has the three-page message received on behalf of Abu Hafs al-Masri in addition to many other documents. There’s also a cup of coffee that’s been allowed to go cold. As he speaks he looks at the computer screen and suddenly reads that ETA has denied involvement in the Madrid attack. When asked if the Madrid attack has anything to do with the one against Iraq, he says he doesn’t know. He makes it clear that Saddam Hussein was “a dictator”; but he stresses that if anyone had to remove him from power, it was the “citizens” who should have done it.

Do you lend any credibility to the communiqué you received on Thursday that claimed responsibility for the Madrid attacks on behalf of al-Qaeda?

This communiqué is written in the same way as those we have received previously and has reached us through the same processes as the others. The last one we received was on the same day as the Baghdad and Karbala attacks [March 2]. That very night they e-mailed us claiming responsibility for the attacks. The communiqué looks the same and has been transmitted in the same way.

So you are sure that the Abu Hafs al-Masri Brigade was responsible for the attacks.

It’s up to the security forces to verify what happened, no one can say for certain. Anyhow we weren’t the only ones to receive the message; the BBC, CNN, Al-Jazeera and Reuters also received it.